So, here I sits, idly planning a Swashbuckling Mage, and it occurs to me; Swashies get Whirlwind Attack once they hit HLAs, giving them a cool ten attacks per round.
Now as the title says, what do you think would be better for a Swashbuckler planning to Whirlwind Attack? A single weapon fighter, or a Dual Wielder? Or perhaps even both, switching from one for day-to-day combat to the other for whirling?
Some relevant trivia:
Whirlwind, unlike the improved version Fighters can get, always has a -4 to hit penalty, but still gives 10 attacks/round.
Swashbucklers can put 3 points into Two Weapon Fighting, meaning no penalties with either hand, and an extra attack generally, but this costs 3/9 of their points, and specialisation is already taking up 2 per weapon, so it's pretty expensive, as far as proficiencies go.
Meanwhile Single Weapon Fighting costs 1 point, and when SWF is satisfied, gives +1 AC and critical hits on a 19 or 20. Since Swashies can specialise, putting points into SWF instead of TWF means specialising in an additional weapon, but given most people only use single specific weapon types the whole game, that may not be worth it to you.
By the time a Swashbuckler is level 25 (the max multiple of 5 for a multi-classed thief/mage) they have a neat +5 to hit/+5 damage per hit, regardless of weapon.
I'm not sure how Improved Haste or weapons like Belm would interact with it, but Whirlwind with two weapons I believe would give 9 attacks with the primary weapon, and 1 attack with the off-hand weapon.
Thief proficiencies can only go into: Short Swords, Long Swords, Katanas, Daggers, Short Bows, Scimitar/etc, Darts, and Light Crossbows, with use any item they can indeed equip Crom Faeyr, but they cannot be proficient with it, something worth bearing in mind if you enjoy rocking max strength all over the place.
Personally I'm leaning towards SWF for double the number of criticals, but I'm very happy to be proven wrong.
